'We’re all part of the problem': Documentary looks at the battle for water resources in Latin America

The seed for the documentary “Water for Life” was planted in 2010 while director Will Parrinello was working on another project.

“(Producer) Vicente Franco and I made a short profile film on (farmer) Francisco Pineda in 2010,” he says. “We had a commission to make a film about him and were with him for two weeks. After the short film was made, we both looked at each other and agreed that we had to make a longer film about Francisco and his work. That was 15 years ago.”

Parrinello remained patient knowing that the time would come for the project to come to fruition.

“Given the timing of what’s happening in the country, it’s perfect for the documentary,” Parrinello says. “It’s going to air on PBS where it will be accessible to the majority of the country. The goal for any film is to get as many eyes on it as you can. This is a blessing.”

“Water for Life” will air at 9 p.m. Monday, April 21, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. It will also be available to stream on the PBS app.

According to PBS, the documentary tells the dramatic story of three community leaders in Latin America who resisted government and corporate plans to divert critical local water resources to mining and hydroelectric projects. Despite reassurances from government officials and corporate executives that precious water from rivers and lakes would not be contaminated or siphoned off by development projects, Mapuche Chief Alberto Curamil in Chile, Lenca Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres in Honduras, and subsistence farmer Pineda in El Salvador feared the worst.

Parrinello says spending time with Cáceres, Curamil and Pineda — who protect endangered water resources and traditional ways of life — was eye opening.

“There’s always been a problem with entities coming in to extract natural resources and push people off of their land,” he says. “A lot of these areas are strapped for water resources and someone has to watch out for them. I learned a lot of what both Berta, Alberto and Francisco have had to endure in this fight.”

In dedicating nearly five years of work on the documentary, Parrinello and his team set up interviews that run the gamut.

They set up interviews with business leaders, politicians and journalists, which became a big part of the production.

“We did all this work and by the time we had the first edit, we showed each edit to trusted peers and everyone said they were lost,” he recalls. “We needed the stories to be linear. That was a challenge for us because there was so much material that we had from the interviews. We wanted to show the price people are paying to keep defending the planet and Mother Nature.”

Parrinello says one of the biggest challenges with the documentary was getting the opposition to talk to them.

“We went into this project wanting to be fair,” he says.

As Parrinello gears up for the documentary to air on PBS, he has some hopes for viewers.

“We’re all part of the problem,” he says. “This is part of the story. We’re overconsuming our planet and we all need to live with less.”

'We’re all part of the problem': Documentary looks at the battle for water resources in Latin America